1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an airbag device of a vehicle for protecting a passenger in the vehicle when a collision occurs, and more particularly to an assembly structure of an airbag case that is capable of adjustably assembling an airbag case to an instrument panel considering assembly tolerance.
2. Description of the Related Art
As shown in FIG. 1, a conventional airbag device for vehicles generally comprises: an airbag case 2 mounted to an instrument panel; an airbag (not shown) accommodated in the front part of the airbag case 2; an inflator (not shown) mounted to the rear part of the airbag case 2 for supplying a high-pressure gas to the airbag so that the airbag is expanded when a collision occurs; and an impact sensor for sensing a collision of a vehicle, whereby the airbag is expanded toward a passenger in the vehicle when the collision occurs to absorb kinetic energy from the passenger and thus protect the passenger from injury.
The airbag case 2 comprises: a cushion housing 1 for accommodating the airbag; and a can housing 3 attached to the rear part of the cushion housing 1 for accommodating the inflator.
At the cushion housing 1 is formed a flange 10, which is attached to the instrument panel by means of a bolt. At the can housing 3 are formed brackets 12, which are attached to a cowl cross member by means of bolts, respectively, while hanging on the cowl cross member.
In the above-mentioned conventional art, however, positions and shapes of the coupling part between the flange 10 and the instrument panel and of the coupling parts between the brackets 12 and the cowl cross member are fixed, whereby it is difficult to assemble the airbag case 2 due to tolerance when the flange 10 and the instrument panel are connected with each other by means of the bolt and when the brackets 12 and the cowl cross member are connected with each other by means of the bolts.
Of course, the flange 10 and the brackets 12 are designed considering the tolerance. However, the assembly tolerance between the flange 10 and the instrument panel and the assembly tolerance between the brackets 12 and the cowl cross member affect each other. As a result, the tolerance of the parts to be secondly assembled becomes high to the extent that the parts to be secondly assembled cannot be connected to each other after the parts to be firstly assembled are connected to each other by means of the bolt or the bolts, which leads to a high rate of poor assembly.